How to Conduct Special Events

Examples of inappropriate events abound. In the extreme, if you are the symphony you don't sponsor a pie-eating contest; if you run an alcohol recovery program you don't have a beer bash. Often, however, the question of appropriateness is more subtle than in those examples, as shown in the following two case studies.
A question of timing: A community center in a factory town of 25,000 people held a yearly luncheon attended by about 500 people at $50-100 a plate. The luncheon had been a successful fundraiser for three years. In 1990 the town's industry laid off half of its work force. Unemployment in the town rose from four to 25 percent. That year the community center still held its luncheon, and still 500 people came. By the end of 1992 the industry had shut down altogether. Unemployment was now up to 40 percent; many people lost their homes and exhausted their unemployment benefits. The town was gloomy; businesses were closing. The community center needed the money from the luncheon more than ever. Since there were at least 200 people who could still afford the price, they held the event. They were sharply criticized for doing so in light of the severe economic austerity that most of the townspeople were facing. The yearly luncheon had become inappropriate due to circumstances outside of the control of the community center.
A question of judgment: A women's health organization holding a raffle offered as a top prize a case of fine, expensive wine. During promotion of the raffle a number of studies were released showing a high rate of alcoholism among women. An internal debate ensued over whether it was appropriate for a group working to prevent dangerous drugs and devices from being given to women to offer alcohol - a potentially dangerous drug - as a raffle prize. Proponents argued that only 10 percent of the population is alcoholic and that alcohol does not harm most people who use it. The chance of an alcoholic winning that prize was slim compared to how many people would be attracted to the raffle because of the prize. However, opponents swayed the group by reasoning that they would not approve of a contraceptive that hurt "only" 10 percent of its users. The group withdrew the prize.
Image of the Organization
As far as possible, the special event should be in keeping with the image of the organization or should promote the image the organization wishes to project. Although considerations of appropriateness sometimes include those of image, image is also a distinct issue. Many events that are appropriate for a group do not necessarily promote a positive image of it. For example, a library would choose a book sale over a garage sale, even though both are appropriate. An environmental organization would raffle a white-water rafting trip rather than a weekend at Disneyland. An organization promoting awareness of the problem of high blood pressure might choose to hold a health fair rather than a dance.
Energy of Volunteers
Looking at the volunteer energy required involves several considerations. How many people are required to put on this event? What would these volunteers be doing if they were not working on this event? Do you have enough volunteers who have the time required to produce this event - not only to manage the event on the day of its occurrence but to be attentive to all the details that must be carried out beforehand?
Volunteer time is a resource to be cultivated, guided, and used appropriately. For example, don't use someone with connections to possible large donors to sell raffle tickets at a shopping mall on Saturday afternoon. Similarly, a friendly, outgoing person who loves to talk on the phone should be the phone-a-thon coordinator or the solicitor of auction items and not be asked to bake brownies for the food booth at the county fair. Obviously, what the volunteer wants to do should be of primary concern. People generally like to do what they are good at and be involved where they can be most useful.
Front Money
Most special events require that some money be spent before there is assurance that any money will be raised. The front money needed for an event should be an amount your organization could afford to lose if the event had to be cancellcancelled. This money should already be available - you should not, for example, use funds from advance ticket sales to rent the place where the event will be held. If the event is cancelled many people will want their money back. Events that require a lot of front money can create a cash flow problem in the organization if the need for this money is not taken into account. Repeatability You need to consider whether the event can be repeated annually. The best event is one that becomes a tradition in your community, so that every year people look forward to the event that your group sponsors. Using this criterion can save you from discarding an event simply because the turnout was small the first time you did it. Perhaps you got too little publicity and only a handful of people came; if each of those people had a great time and you heard them saying things like, "I wish I had brought Juan," or "I wish Alice had known about this," then it may be worth having the event again next year. To decide if an event is repeatable, evaluate whether the same number of people working the same number of hours would raise more money producing this event again.
Timing
Find out what else is happening in your community at the time you want to hold your event. You don't want to conflict with the major fundraising event of a similar organization, nor do you want to be the tenth dance or auction in a row. If you are appealing to a particular constituency, you need to think of their timing. Farmers are mostly unavailable during planting and harvest; Jews will not appreciate being invited to a buffet on Yom Kippur; gay men and lesbians won't come to something scheduled during the Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, and so on. The Big Picture The final consideration is the place of the event in your overall fundraising picture. If you find that the same people attend all your organization's events as well as give money by mail, you are "eating your own tail" and need to rethink how you are using events. If you cannot seem to get publicity for your events, or you are unable to find an event that reaches new constituencies, then maybe mounting special events is not the right approach. If, after analyzing your donor base you decide that your organization needs to increase its number of thoughtful donors, then you won't do as many events whose main purpose is acquisition. In other words, the results of special events (new names, publicity, new volunteers) must be fed into the overall effort to build a donor base or the effort put into the event will have mostly been wasted.
How to Plan a Special Event
Special events require more planning time than one would imagine. Because so much can go wrong, and because many things often hinge on one thing so that one mistake can throw off weeks of work, events must be planned with more attention to minute detail than almost any other fundraising strategy.
The Committee for Special Events
There must be a small committee of volunteers overseeing the work for the event. Using paid staff time to organize a special event is expensive and does not help to train or involve volunteers in substantive fundraising tasks.
The job of the committee is to plan and coordinate the event, not to do every task. After planning the event, most of the committee's work consists of delegating as many tasks as possible. Large committees can be unwieldy and counterproductive. With a larger committee planning the event, it is likely that some important element will be left out, that the planning process itself will take longer, that the committee meetings will be like special events themselves, and that the committee members will quickly burn out.
Each special event should have its own committee, although there can be overlap from one event to another. Special events are labor intensive, however, and people need to have a rest period between events and a chance not to participate in an event. The committee must have staff and board support, and everyone must agree that the chosen event is a good idea. There are three simple steps a special events committee should take to ensure the success of the event: detail a master task list, prepare a budget, and develop a time line.

1. Detail a master task list. On a piece of paper make four columns labelled "What," "When," "Who," and "Done." Under "What" list all the tasks that must be accomplished. Include everything, even those things you are sure no one would ever forget, such as "Pick up tickets at printer" or "Send invitations to the board." Every minute detail should be on this list. Under the column "When" note beside each task when it must be finished. Now put the list into chronological order so that you have a list of things that must be done and the order in which to do them. After completing steps two and three, complete the "Who," column, noting to whom the task is assigned. When the task is completed, note the date under "Done."
2. Prepare a budget. Create two sheets to work with: one for estimating and recording expenses and the other for estimating and recording income. On each, create columns for the item being priced and its estimated cost (or income) and actual cost (or income). The actual costs and income are filled in after the event.
List those tasks from the master task list that will cost money and estimate how much on the expense sheet. List those activities that will raise money on the income sheet with their estimated income. When you subtract your expense sheet total from your income sheet total, you have the projected "net," or financial goal, of the event. The budget should be simple but thorough, so that all costs are accounted for and planned on. As you budget, remember that an estimate is not a guess. If someone says, "The estimate for food is . . ." or "The estimate for printing is . . ." it means he or she has called several vendors for prices, bargained, and is satisfied that the estimate will be the price or very close to the price you will pay. As costs are incurred they should be noted in the actual column. As much as possible, put off paying for anything until after the event and work in cancellation clauses for rentals or other contracts. For example, if a hall rents for $600 with $300 required as a deposit, try to reserve the right to get all or part of that $300 deposit back (if necessary) as close to the date of the event as possible. Ideally, of course, you will aim to get as many things as possible donated, but don't budget to get anything for free. Always put a price in the budget. This will protect you in case you do have to pay for something you had planned to get donated, and also give you a cushion in case you have an unexpected expense.
3. Create a time line. To ensure that you have thought of everything that should be done and that you have allowed enough time to do it all, think "backwards" from the target date for your event. If you want to have a dance on August 10, what would you have to do on August 9? To do those things, what would you have to do in early August? What would have to be in place by July 15? And so on, back to the day you are starting from. By this "backward planning," the committee may find out that it is impossible to put on the event in the time allowed. In that case they must either modify the event or change the date. Thinking through each week's tasks for the time line is likely to reveal expenses or additional tasks you hadn't thought of. Add these to your task list and budget. As you plan, remember to take into account that although there may be 90 days between now and the event, there may be only 60 "working" days because of schedule conflicts. For example, if a number of your volunteers have children, you should check a school calendar to make sure you don't need anything done on the first or last day of school, during spring vacation, or on commencement. Few organizations can have a New Year's Eve party as a fundraiser simply because they cannot get anyone to work during the two weeks preceding New Year's Day.
Establish "go/no-go" dates. On your time line, you will notice that there are periods of intense activity alternating with lulls throughout the time leading up to the event. The periods of intense activity, where several tasks must be accomplished and each is related to the other (such as design, layout, proofread, print and mail invitations) are called "task clusters." These groups of tasks must be accomplished as designated on your time line. The date by which each cluster must be accomplished is a "go/no-go" date. At those dates, evaluate your progress and decide if you are going to proceed with the event, or if you are too hopelessly behind or too many things have gone wrong and you should cancel or modify the event. Go/no-go dates can also include goals for how many tickets you should have sold or how many ads for the adbook, or how many underwriters are lined up to ensure that the event will be successful.
Once the committee has prepared the task list, the budget and the time line, they are ready to proceed in assigning tasks to other volunteers. When you ask volunteers or vendors to do things, give them a due date that is sooner than the one in the "When" column of your task list. That way, in the best case you will always be ahead of your schedule; in the worst case - if the task is not completed - you will have some time to get it done.
What Not to Forget
Here is a checklist of commonly forgotten items in planning an event: Liquor license. Insurance (on the hall, for the speaker, for participants). Contracts vary on this, but check it out. It often happens that a hall or auditorium is inexpensive because insurance is not included but is required of the renting organization. A one-night insurance policy or a rider on an existing policy can cost upwards of $1,500. Logistics of transporting food, drink, speakers, performers, sound equipment, and the like to the event. Lodging for performers or speaker. Parking: either a well-lighted lot or available on well-lighted streets. If there is going to be food: plates, utensils, and napkins. Are salt and pepper needed? Cream and sugar for coffee or tea? Heat or air conditioning: is it available, does it cost extra, will you need to bring your own fans or space heaters? Here are some questions you need to ask before the event: Is the venue wheelchair accessible? Make sure that all rooms are accessible, especially both the men's and women's bathroom doors, stalls, toilet paper dispenser, sinks, etc. Sometimes a building will be labelled "wheelchair accessible" when only the front door and one area of seating are actually accessible. Where and how to dispose of trash? Are there clearly marked recycling bins and trash cans? Will you allow smoking? If so, where, and is that clearly marked? Does the invitation's reply card fit into the return envelope? Has everything been proofread by at least two people? Is the organization's address on the reply card, flier, poster, invitation, everything else? Are the price, date, time, place, and directions to the event on all advertising? Have you considered the necessity of child care or language translation? How safe is the neighborhood? Will women feel safe coming alone? Can you see and hear from every seat? (Sit in a number of seats to make sure.) Who will open the room or building for you? Do you need any keys? Do you know how the lights work? Where are the fire exits?


The Evaluation
The final step in planning a special event is evaluating how it went. Within a few days after the event the planning committee should meet a last time to fill out an evaluation form, as illustrated below. Save this evaluation along with copies of the advertising, the invitations, and any other information that would be useful for next year's planning committee. The evaluation will allow you decide whether or not to do the event again and will also ensure that the same number of people working the same amount of time will raise more and more money every year. It should not be necessary to create the planning documents described above more than once. Once you have created them, every year a new committee can modify and add to them, but each committee is building on the knowledge and experience of previous committees.
Special Event Report
Approximately how much time did the committee spend on this event? In evaluating this, try to subtract time not really spent on the event (side discussions, eating) and be sure to count time members spent doing errands and making phone calls.
Comments:
Did this event bring in any new members? __ Yes __ No
How many?
Can people who came to this event be invited to join the organization?__Yes __ No
Did this event bring in new money? __ Yes __ No
How much? ______
Does this event have the capacity to grow every year? __ Yes __No
Comments:
What would you do exactly the same next time?
What would you do differently?
List sources of free or low-cost items and who got them and indicate whether you think they will be available next year:
What kind of follow-up needs to be done?
Which committee members did what work?
Other comments:
Which committee members would be willing to work on this event next year?